Competitive Volleyball Players Shouldn't Be Expected to like "Picnic" Volleyball

I used to play a lot of highly competitive volleyball, up to 20 hours a week in Chicago: highly strategic pickup games with "A" and "AA" players. I took the sport of volleyball as seriously as a person might take his golf game seriously. There is no fooling around; just serious, athletic play -- like any sport, for that matter, such as competitive games of pickup basketball. So what is it, then, about volleyball, that has people expecting serious volleyball players to get involved in a game of "jungle ball"?

Jungle ball is the name given to the type of volleyball that is played at picnics or in peoples' backyards. This isn't volleyball; it's jungle ball. It's a whole different animal than an actual, real game of volleyball, which is sometimes referred to as power volleyball. Get a group of skilled volleyball players together and they will play for blood, adhering to rules and taking rules seriously. There will be no nonsense, just like there is no nonsense in a pickup game of skilled basketball players.

Volleyball is a sport. It is an Olympic sport. Professional beach volleyball players can earn over $100,000 per year. This is no "girlie" or sissy sport! So once again, I ask: Why are competitive volleyball players expected to play at the jungle ball level when a game of jungle ball is about to start?

Recently at a family gathering my brother commented to me that the whole gang was going to have a game of volleyball. He talked as though this would be a dramatic event, and that I should be excited about it. I wasn't the least bit excited. I have played jungle ball before at company picnics, and it gets boring fast. I have played jungle ball during other circumstances, and believe me, I have had my lifetime fill of this.

My brother is an avid golfer and skier. He takes these sports seriously. So it's difficult to imagine that he would derive excitement repeatedly putting a plastic golf ball down a 10-foot strip of Astroturf into a hole, or skiing a bunny hill when he's used to skiing double black diamonds. Same thing with a competitive basketball player: Imagine this same person deriving a thrill from making shots with a spongy basketball into a hoop that's only seven feet off the ground.

But volleyball? Why were people puzzled that I wasn't out there playing jungle ball? Jungle ball is not volleyball. It's a bunch of nonsense, giggling and camaraderie that I have never cared for. I chose instead to stay inside and play Scrabble with a family member, while people outside were struggling to keep a volley going.

I might add that a 4-year-old child was on one of the "teams." I can't imagine a 4-year-old being encouraged to get in on a game of recreational basketball, even though a child this age is no more capable standing helplessly during a jungle ball game than running about a basketball court. It's also potentially dangerous for the small child; an over-eager jungle ball player could stumble into her, or she could get flattened by a hard-hit ball. But no, everyone thought it was so cute that a 4-year-old girl in a dress was "playing" volleyball. It's only luck that some klutz didn't crash into her.

Though two of the players were actually able to play the game and were on opposite sides, this wasn't enough to carry their teams. A good player is thus forced to play down to the collective level of everyone else. If this is fun and enjoyable for people, that's fine. Let the game begin. But why, oh why, do these folks find it baffling when someone who plays real volleyball has no interest in jungle ball?